When it comes to track and field, Amelia Brohman puts a lot of faith in a simple motivational sentence.

The Grade 9 Hillcrest High School student/athlete isn’t sure where is came from, but she adopted it last fall as part of her psychological training: “The practice you miss in September is the race you lose in June.”

She must have made all of her practices last September, and even though it’s almost June, she fared well in her two midget girls’ individual races this week at the National Capital Secondary School Athletic Association East Conference track and field championships at the Terry Fox Athletic Facility.

Brohman won both the 100 and 200 metres and set a meet record in the later race. She also anchored Hillcrest to a fourth-place result in the 4×100-metre relay.

After missing the 28-year-old 200-metre record of 26.2 seconds by one-tenth of a second in her preliminary race, Brohman erased the record in the final with a run of 25.97.

In the 100 metres, she broke her personal best time of 12.67 twice as she had the fastest clocking in the semifinals at 12.54 and won the first-place ribbon at 12.63. The meet record was 12.1 and was set in 1984.

“I was nervous (on Tuesday), but after my heats I felt comfortable with my times going into the finals (Wednesday),” Brohman said. “I stayed focused on my race (200 metres) and ran it like the 1 (100 metres).

“I was very surprised how I opened the season.”

Brohman explained good training and coaching accounted for the early success in her high school career as she follows her motivational quote.

“I want to do well,” she said. “I want to shine and set good records and times.”

It’s a natural extention of her success at elementary school meets. While running the 100 and 200 metres at the school meets over the past five years, she never lost an age-group race.

Her only loss was at the Hudson Sargeant Relays, when as a Grade 5 student she ran against Grade 8 students and finished second in the 100 metres.

* * * * *

Cameron Smithers fell to the track immediately after his anchor leg in the open boys’ 4×400-metre relay, which gave Colonel By Courgars a second-place finish in three minutes, 36.16 seconds. Canterbury won in 3:35.39.

And he stayed the blue Terry Fox Athletic Facility track surface for five minutes, catching his breath and looking for an energy boost after a gruelling day of sprinting.

“That was my fifth or sixth race of the day and I’m pretty tired,” said Smithers, who refers to himself as a toothpick at 5-11 and 132 pounds.

In order, here was his senior boys’ lineup and results from Wednesday:

* 400 metres, timed final – finished first in 49.93 seconds to edge Canterbury’s Devin Biocchi at 50.46 in the fourth and final heat;

* 200 metres, final – a tough race coming about half an hour after his 400-metre race, finished fifth in 23.28;

* 400-metre hurdles, timed final – taking one for the team, he went through the motions to save himself for the two relays, finished third in 1:04.24;

* 4×100-metre relay, timed final – he helped the Cougars to a first-place finish in 43.78, but the team ran 42.81 the previous week;

* 4×400-metre relay, timed final – after Canterbury ran 3:35.39 in the first heat, Colonel By won the second heat with Smithers as anchor and missed top spot by .77 of a second.

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